52 LARGE GAME. chap. i. 



long thorns, and then he had the man, who was in the 

 greatest agony, carried to camp, some miles off, where 

 both wounds were sewed up. No one had for a moment 

 imagined that such an injury could end otherwise than 

 fatally, but to the general astonishment he gradually 

 recovered, and after five or six months was able to go about 

 again, ultimately getting perfectly well, and retaining no 

 trace of his accident other than two tremendous scars. 



Subsequently I hunted a great deal, when staying in 

 my friend's camp, with this very man, and have heard 

 from his own lips how it occurred. He said that he was 

 following the track of the wounded animal up this narrow 

 path, guarded on each side with walls of cactus, and that 

 he suddenly heard a grunt close beside him, and as he 

 turned round to look he saw before him a buffalo in the 

 act of lowering its head. Escape was impossible, and 

 almost instantly it accomplished its purpose, rendering 

 him partially insensible from the sharpness of the pain, 

 and he remembered little more until he was being carried 

 home. It was found that the cow was unwounded, and 

 that therefore its attack was a totally unprovoked one ; 

 and the instance is valuable as showing both how accidents 

 may occur in spite of all forethought and skill — for this 

 man had few equals as a hunter — and what a native may 

 go through and yet live. 



I remember another instance of the wonderful power 

 the natives seem to possess of recovering from wounds which 

 we should deem fatal, which was related to me by the hero 

 of it, and whose scars left no doubt of the truth of his story. 



He was a Zulu, a nation justly famous for their courage, 

 and was noted, even among them, for his daring and sue- 



